Automotive Digital Key Industry Trend Report 2025: UWB, NearLink, and Bluetooth 6.0 Emerge as Future Digital Key Leaders

The digital key market is experiencing significant growth, with emerging technologies poised to transform the landscape. Predictions indicate that the digital key installation rate in China's passenger car market will climb from 47.5% in 2024 to over 80% by 2030, highlighting an upward trend driven by advanced technology integration.

In the competitive arena, emerging automotive brands lead with an impressive digital key installation rate of 89% in 2024, up by 8.1 percentage points from the previous year. Among these brands, 60% have implemented digital keys across all vehicle models.

Key suppliers in this segment include YF Tech, Pektron, Gosuncn, UAES, and Kostal, collectively holding a 66.7% market share. Notably, YF Tech commands the market with a 27.5% share, supported by partnerships with the Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance brands like AITO and LUXEED.

From a technological viewpoint, three main players are emerging: UWB, NearLink, and Bluetooth 6.0. Each presents unique advantages and challenges:

UWB Growth: This technology saw a 354.6% year-on-year increase in installations in 2024. Brands like NIO, Zeekr, and BMW have adopted UWB, capitalizing on its high-precision location features for features like automated parking and in-cabin monitoring. Sensor multiplexing with UWB enhances capabilities, enabling functionalities like child presence detection and intelligent vehicle access.

Emerging NearLink: NearLink offers improvements in accuracy and stability, minimizing traditional digital key issues such as door locking malfunctions. YF Tech, in collaboration with Shanghai HiSilicon, developed the world's first NearLink standard digital car key, now in mass production. This solution supports seamless locking, unlocking, key sharing, and over-the-air updates, promising broad adoption over the coming years.
Promising Bluetooth 6.0: Launched by the Bluetooth Technology Alliance in 2024, Bluetooth 6.0 features Channel Sounding for high-precision positioning. This technology combines Phase-Based Ranging and Round-Trip Time to significantly enhance digital key accuracy. Set for implementation between 2026 and 2027, Bluetooth 6.0 could bolster the robustness of digital keys.

Looking ahead, the fusion solution of BLE+NFC is expected to dominate the market due to its cost-effectiveness. While standalone NFC may see limited growth, solutions integrating UWB offer broader applications, including liveness detection and smart access functionality. NearLink and Bluetooth 6.0's entrance further diversifies the technology ecosystem, indicating a transformative decade for digital key technology.